Celeste Caliri was born in New Orleans, and spent most of her life jumping between New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Kailua, Hawaii. A formally trained fine artist, she started painting elaborate watercolors while attending Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles; and it was her experience with this fragile art form that cultivated a fierce attention to color and detail. After graduating from LMU, Celeste began working at Larry Levinson Productions in Los Angeles as a digital matte painter, creating backdrops for network television films under the guidance of renowned matte artist Max Gabl. Her forte is taking unrealistic and underwhelming backdrops and painting realistic lighting, textures and details creating dramatic horizons and believable worlds. A transplant to Seattle, Celeste is also a Senior Pilates Instructor and mixes her time between matte painting and the pilates reformer.